Assumption
by BattleJoy W
Summary: Every theory is based on the foundation of a number of assumptions. If you are wrong about even one of them, then... (implied non-graphic character deaths, minor implied pairings)


**Assumption**

By BattleJoy

Genre: Horror

Spoiler Warnings: Up to Chapter 59

Other Warnings: Character Death Allusions (Non-graphic), and it's a bit off the wall

Pairings: Er… the pairings is pretty secondary but… L/Misa, Misa/Light, and if you look hard enough, L/Light.

Disclaimer: Death Note doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Kira, who we all know is…_URK!_ -_stops as she clutches at her chest and falls over dead.-_

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Stepping into the room, Light should have felt at ease. It was the main room of their headquarters and a familiar place, even if the huge wall of monitors were shut off. Yet, the whole place had an eerie unnaturalness. 

Light knew it was too dark and yet too bright for that room. The silence and darkness clung to the edges like swathes of dark fabric but, if the overhead florescent lights and monitors was off, it should have completely dark.

Groping the walls, for a light-switch turned out to be a vain struggle as he couldn't find the one he knew should have been near the entrance. Beside him, Misa's trembling nervousness was quickly evolving into a frantic death grip on his arm, slightly impeding his movements toward the lights of the console at the back of the room.

"Light," She hissed between clenched teeth. "Look."

But that statement wasn't needed; Light was already watching the growing, unhealthy glow in the room. It came from a laptop perched on armrest of the office chair, illuminating the silhouette of a hunched figure in a chair.

Even before Light saw the wan face of Ryuuzaki he already knew it was him. Through a maze of reason, Light knew he knew the being of L, the detective and opponent that dogged his every step, and would instinctively recognize him anywhere.

This being said, it was still chilling to see the way the light played off the sunken cheeks of Ryuuzaki, making his mannerisms seem even more unearthly as he disjointedly led with his head as he slowly spun around in the office chair to face Light.

"Hello, Yagami-kun," Beyond all reason, his whisper cut through the increasing rapid pace that Light realized was his own breath and heartbeat. It almost mirrored the way he could feel his thoughts jumble as he realized that this scenario was impossible.

"But- but you're dead," Light gasped. He had watched Ryuuzaki shiver, shudder, and still in his own arms. He had checked Ryuuzaki's pulse, had seen him dragged away in the ambulance. He had even watched the sheet being pulled over Ryuuzaki's waxy, stiff face. "But Rem wrote your name in the Death Note."

Light had personally felt the dust of the late-reaper shift through his fingers.

"Really?" Ryuuzaki asked, in that curious way he always did, as if trying to understand the world for the first time.

It was so impossible, but not as impossible as the cold chill in Misa's voice as she let go of his arm and said, "Silly Light. You've been told the rules of the Note."

Light was aghast as he felt Misa shove him. All the rules flittered past his mind while he watched her happily skip to kneel by Ryuuzaki's seat, laying her cheek against Ryuuzaki's crouched feet.

"Oh don't be so hard on Yagami-kun, Misa-chan," Ryuuzaki hand reached down to stroke Misa's hair like a favored pet. "Yagami-kun was a good..." The one Light knew also as L, paused for a moment to consider the right wording, "Rival."

"But how-," Light began before turning to see Rem, whole and dutifully carrying a tray of sweets, emerged from the darkness to Ryuuzaki's side. Eagerly, Misa began feeding Ryuuzaki spoonful by spoonful of whatever decadently sweet creation that was in the bowl.

"Ryuk was right. This world's food is delicious," Between bites, he smiled while he licked a bit of whipped cream off his lip, before turning his attention back to Light. "Yagami, you want to know how? Well every theory is based on a brief number of assumptions. If one of them is drastically off, the whole thing falls apart."

"But it's impossible. Which assumption...?"

"Ryuk isn't the _brightest_ reaper, and yet he tricked the King of Reapers into giving him an extra Death Note. And yet the King of Reapers made the rules. Didn't you think it odd that every single rule when applied to humans was made for one purpose?"

Lightening quick counter-steps in logic trickled down until the pieces fell into place in Light's mind. His jaw dropped as he saw his opponent truly for the first time. "It was a set-up. You used me and the others. You knew the whole time. You let me kill all those people."

"You can't kill a reaper by using a Death Note," Misa helpfully explained, even if it was already painfully obvious to Light already.

He had assumed the Death Note was only a neutral tool of death. But in human hands, it amplified power, arrogance, and darkness, rotting the soul from the inside. It was all an elaborate trap, pure and silent. A trap that was made especially for someone like Yagami Light.

"Of course, I let those people die. It's what I am," Ryuuzaki's smile widened, "And everyone says you are just like me. You really were the perfect opponent. It's so very hard to find games to pass the eons."

Light hadn't seen this one coming. For all his dabbling with the Reapers and their other-worldliness, he had always assumed that the ball was in his court. His heart sunk while he was frozen to the spot, watching Ryuuzaki and already knowing his fate.

"But every game needs to end." With finality, and Light's own writing pen, Ryuuzaki signed the Death Note Rem handed to him.

The shadows of the room closed around him, full of teeth and the misshapen forms of the Reapers watching their King. Backing away, Light almost slipped on the fine dried silt, he knew with certainty, was the remains of Ryuk scattered across the floor.

Above the shuffling, choking stillness, Misa's voice cheerfully sang,"40... 39...38...37..."

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As always, review OR DIE! 

Or not.


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